​Not long ago, I reported that Diana J. Muir self-published the first $45 installment of a planned multivolume translation of the supposed private diaries of Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney and his descendants for four hundred years. Sinclair holds an exalted place in the fringe history imagination because of a wrongheaded eighteenth century opinion that he was the Zichmni of the hoax Zeno narrative and the even more incorrect twentieth century opinion of Frederick J. Pohl that he was the inspiration for the Mi’kmaq demigod Glooscap and Scotland’s colonizer of America. In recent years, he has been promoted to a possessor of the secrets of the Knights Templar, disbanded half a century before his birth, and guardian of the secret bloodline formed by the union of Mary Magdalene and Jesus Christ, joining him to a conspiracy theory about a Holy Bloodline first proposed by Louis Martin in the 1880s.

​Muir contacted me to promote the book, and I asked her to provide me with samples of the original Latin of the diaries and/or photographs of these journals. She declined to provide the evidence. [Update: Muir disputed this in a comment on Scott Wolte​r’s blog. A person claiming to be Muir contacted me via Twitter on Oct. 23, and I replied via Twitter.] Apparently—and incredibly—Muir threw away the originals, keeping only her convenient translation, three pages, and a few photos. According to Muir, who described her choice to dispose of and bury the journals in an undisclosed location in a now-deleted Facebook post, the books she had were copies made during the Civil War (the American one, I assume) to protect their contents. There are, apparently, no medieval originals to be had.Uh-huh.

Diana Muir's now-deleted Facebook comment.

Now erstwhile America Unearthed host Scott F. Wolter, a longtime Sinclair conspiracy theorist, has posted to his blog the introduction he wrote to Muir’s translation. It is every bit as bad as you might imagine a number of amateurs reinforcing their mutual fantasies might be.

For our purposes, I am going to assume that the documents are fake because… well, because no one has provided evidence to the contrary and all signs point to fakery. But I am also taking this position to show that the claims Wolter makes can equally or better be explained by forgery.

Wolter rightly begins by expressing his doubts about the journals’ authenticity, but things take a swift turn when he wrongly concludes that experts from dozens of fields would be necessary to fake the information found in them. Worse, though, is that Wolter claims to have spent two years personally vetting the journals with Masonic Grand Master Terry Tilton, neither of whom possess the requisite expertise. Wolter, for example, does not read the Latin in which Muir says they were written. How one could vet texts written in a language one cannot read, I hesitate even to speculate.

Both Terry Tilton and Scott Wolter have had flattering pedigrees of their supposed exalted ancestors prepared and published by Muir.

According to Wolter, the journals reflect with uncanny accuracy conspiracy theories about the life and beliefs of Henry Sinclair that were not part of the historical record and only developed by inference in the middle and late twentieth century. Amazing!

The Scottish Templars led by the Sinclair’s traveled to the “Western Lands” numerous times including Earl Henry’s father, William Sinclair II, who made the trip a total of seven times himself. Impossible to comprehend at first glance, the idea of frequent trips to North America becomes all the more plausible given the “Cremona Document” tells of Templar voyages coming to North America as early as 1179. It seems a hoaxer would be more conservative in the number of trips knowing the context of currently accepted beliefs of historians that the Templars no longer existed in the mid to late Fourteenth Century, let alone ever made it to America. The fallacy here was the idea of no pre-Columbian European contact has no factual supporting evidence and numerous documents, artifacts, and sites found in North America directly refute this erroneous narrative.

The young Earl Henry made numerous mentions of both old and new religious holidays and made numerous mentions of the ‘Great Goddess” who was central to his clan’s spiritual beliefs. These entries are also consistent with my own research into the true ideology of the Templars.

​Wolter flatters himself that this apparently hoax was written to fool historians and not him. The mention of goddess worship, a new innovation added to the myth of Henry Sinclair in the 2000s by Wolter and his circle, marks this as a fairly obvious hoax. So far as I can find, there is no mention of Sinclair in connection with goddess worship before about 2004, and even then it was symbolic, not literal. Full-blown goddess worship claims seem to emerge from Wolter’s television series and related book after 2012. The further description of Sinclair as having found primitive Freemasons among Templar descendants in America marks this as a derivative of Wolter’s own speculations, for he developed this particular idea after 2013, further narrowing the window for hoaxing.

The journals also conveniently record Sinclair’s impressions of Antonio and Nicolò Zeno, the Venetian navigators and supposed authors of the hoax Zeno narrative (actually written by a descendant two centuries later). The journals further provide a record of the thirty men who took off to the interior of America to carve the Kensington Rune Stone, itself widely considered another hoax. What luck! What chance! Templars, Zenos, and the Rune Stone! My, that Henry Sinclair was so perceptive, a veritable eyewitness to hidden history. A shame, then, that he left no comparable records of his official acts in the actual records of his life surviving in Europe.

“Only a deeply knowledgeable person on a team of hoaxers could insert these aspects into the entries in such convincing fashion,” Wolter writes. “Beyond myself and very few others, we know of no others who understand the complicated Goddess ideology of the Templar leadership.” Unknown to Wolter, he answered his own question: To create such a hoax, a hoaxer need only copy directly from Wolter’s own books and blog posts and radio rants. That he cannot see his own fingerprints only shows that the hoax most likely was designed with him in mind as its target audience.

Wolter’s details about his vetting do not inspire confidence. He claims to have read the English translation—by Muir—and to have seen a photograph of one page of one journal. He claims three original pages, which he believes are copies of copies, still exist—though in comments below his blog post, he says he handled all of the journals and has photographs he will not share. Wolter claims that checking the content of the journals failed to turn up matches with known figures or extant European records. Bizarrely, he claims that this is evidence of authenticity. “This begs the question of how and why a forger would make up so many names of people known to exist and others we can find no record of. That we still have many questions about these individuals actually supports authenticity of the documents.” No, no, no. The forger more likely made up names because she (or he, I guess, since Muir claimed on Facebook to be the recipient of the journals from what she originally thought was a hoaxer) was making things up and did not have access to European archives, such as church baptismal records, grave markers, legal papers, and other surviving documents that might have provided a better cover.

I expected to see Wolter explain what exactly he did to vet these journals. What facts did he check? What records did he use? For example, a place to start would be to compare the journals’ account of Henry I Sinclair’s life against the surviving documentation of his whereabouts. Do they align? Similarly, if he was involved with the brothers Zeno, how does this square against Venetian records showing that one of them was in Greece in 1392 and in Venice in 1394, where he was on trial. He also lived to 1402 while the hoax Zeno narrative has him in Greenland in 1393 and dead in 1394. These are fairly big problems that should be among the easiest places to start vetting the text.

I also expected to see a discussion of the Latin. Given that Wolter is ignorant of it (he uses Google Translate), one might have expected him to ask an expert to review whether the Latin was (a) correct and (b) correct for the fourteenth century. Is the orthography consistent with the date?

What exactly did he do for two years?

Wolter only says that he will present information about this “in the future.” One might have expected that the publication of the journals would have been the time to present evidence for their supposed authenticity. But then I am not a fringe historian, so what do I know?

According to Terry Tilton, writing in his own foreword to the book, presented on the volume’s Lulu.com sales page, his contribution involved searching “Masonic archives” for the names found in the journals. This strikes me as ridiculous since the Masons did not exist at the time and had nothing to do with Henry I Sinclair. They did not become involved with the Sinclair family for at least a century. He claims, contrary to Wolter, that many of the names (at least from the later centuries for which records exist) match extant records.

A third person involved with the situation two years ago, according to Muir, was Wolter’s former partner in the Xplrr media company, whom I have elected not to name for reasons obvious to regular readers. This piece of information clears up some of the questions about the dramatic and paradigm-busting revelations that Xplrr promised two years ago but, as of this writing, did not deliver.

From Wolter’s description, it appears that the so-called journals are a pseudo-historical fantasy designed to support a fringe view North American history, which just so happens to also be in the particular variant championed by the translator’s favorite TV host. That is truly an amazing coincidence, is it not?

Wolter suggests that the proof of the journals’ authenticity will come from excavating sites listed in the journals for evidence of Sinclair occupation.

It's because they are digging in a latrine! When you have 100 Vikings who haven't had a proper bathroom break over their long voyage from Greenland, you really gotta go. Archimedes designed a boring screw to bring in ocean water to create a septic system so the water around the island didn't become polluted.

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/4/2018 10:11:25 am

And THAT ^ made it through Wolter's screening process.

Joe Scales

11/5/2018 10:31:24 am

I liked him better with the semblance of seriousness. Now he might as well be Pops with his smartest guy in the world impression.

Hal

11/3/2018 09:40:53 am

Self-published author Jason continues to make his living by doing nothing original and claiming to have the ability to translate anything in any language. Your mom needs to turn off the WiFi to get you out of her basement.

Reply

AmericanCool"Disco"Dan

11/3/2018 10:48:04 am

It's like saying The DaVinci Code proves Holy Blood Holy Grail.

"Beyond myself and very few others, we know of no others who pretend to understand or actually believe in the complicated and completely imaginary Goddess ideology of the Templar leadership."

As a wise man has said on more than one occasion, Scott Wolter is an idiot.

Reply

Jim

11/3/2018 11:01:40 am

Wolters nonsensical idea that the more it appears like a fake proves it isn't a hoax, because a hoaxer would never make it look so much like a hoax is comedy gold !
It looks so much like a fake, that it can't be a fake !!!
Bwahaha only Wolter could come up with that !

Reply

AmericanCool"Disco"Dan

11/3/2018 11:38:23 am

I imagine Diana Muir shaking her head and doing a little jig after that first phone call from Wolter. "Got him!"

It's so cute the with his concrete and cement skill set he "vetted" the fake documents. He is pathologically but not criminally delusional. As of this writing languages Wolter does not read but acts as if he has expertise in include Swedish and Latin. I fully expect him to expand his non-expertise to Egyptian hieroglyphics because Templars.

Reply

Jim

11/3/2018 12:05:03 pm

Muir seems to be a big Pulitzer fan, how does he fit in ?
A Civil war era lambskin map ? Did they run out of paper in the civil war ?

Reply

Machala

11/3/2018 12:06:55 pm

I wonder if Scott's linguistic non-skills in Latin are confined to Liturgical Latin or include Latin Vulgate ? Or if he even knows the difference ?

Reply

Jim

11/3/2018 12:12:30 pm

Wolter would take Latin Vulgate to mean swear words.

Reply

Teresa Parker

11/3/2018 12:40:21 pm

Uh? isn't Jason Colovito self published? Not a good argument guys. Apparently Jason's work is worth a 'real' publisher publishing either? I'd say read it before you judge. Mine is on order and when I get it will do my own research. Just as you should.

Reply

Jim

11/3/2018 01:22:27 pm

Come on now, why would you believe her without being able to check her sources ?
She threw out all the evidence ? It's absurd.

"when I get it will do my own research."

What will you research when she has tossed out all the documentation ?

My books were published by Prometheus Books and McFarland, and I am currently closing two deals to place forthcoming books with larger publishers. I self-published a few classic reprints, anthologies, and collected blog content that would not be of interest to mainstream publishers.

Reply

Hal

11/3/2018 07:41:28 pm

But you are still accurately described as self published. You have self published a lot more than you were paid for. Any publisher willing to issue anything by you isn’t doing it because your crap would sell. You are a self absorbed, narcissistic snob who knows he’s an imposter. That’s why you delete so many posts that criticize you. Lots of us see through you.

AmericanCool"Disco"Dan

11/3/2018 08:08:03 pm

Hal, Jason is very lenient about deleting posts. He doesn't for instance maintain the tight editorial control of a Wolter.

But why do you continue? You played the "mother's basement" card and that trumps everything! You've already won!

Dan

11/4/2018 06:14:39 am

Precisely WTF is wrong with being self-published these days.

Industriousness?

You jealous bitches.

Jason is transparent as regards what he self publishes.

I'm one of those informed folks that buy it when it serves.

STFU, you weirdly-nuanced haters.

You're embarrassing.

AmericanCool"disco"dan

11/3/2018 01:23:37 pm

As I said in another thread Wolter's endorsement is itself an indicator of fraud. My research is done.

Reply

Thrashed to death for years

11/3/2018 01:40:27 pm

Rosslyn Chapel is dead, dead, dead.

The fact that none of this material did not appear during its heyday is proof enough of delayed hoax.

Reply

Eirik Sinclair

11/4/2018 11:36:39 am

The Rose line Chaps are fading but not dead, dead, dead just yet.

Pops did his best to keep the family tree going. But it takes two lines to make a mark in history, and 'X' marks the spot

Reply

Crash55

11/3/2018 03:22:23 pm

If they know where the “originals” are buried why not dig them up? At a minimum check to ensure that they paper and ink are consisting the Civil War era.

Then as Jason mentioned check to see if the Latin is appropriate for the origins time frame.

My guess is the vast majority of the pages never existed and it is all being made up as the “translations” are written with Walter’s “works” as the template

Reply

Craig Johnston

11/5/2018 11:54:02 am

It's all good.

She said maybe they will dig them up some day, so everything is on the up and up in that department. Ridiculous.

Future prediction. Wolter gets a TV show to dig up what is supposedly buried based on locations in the manuscripts and finds nothing. "America Unearthed without any unearthing, the pointlessness continues." Somehow J. Hutton Pulitzer is involved.

Has anyone seen an explanation of why she put out two ancestral studies of Wolter and J. Hutton Pulitzer? Are they trying to make some point about linage or something for their sketchy quest?

Reply

Jim

11/3/2018 03:26:23 pm

From Wolters Blog:

Diana Muir:

"I noticed that Colavito claims he contacted me and asked for copies of the Latin text. Colavito has NEVER contacted me, even though my email is clearly at the top of my blog. He seems to have a very vivid imagination."

It is of course possible that the Diana Muir who contacted me on Oct. 24 was not the one in question and was someone posing as her to promote the book.

Mike Morgan

11/3/2018 03:44:19 pm

My, my, my. Even with all her degrees, advanced degrees, and self promoting herself as being a historian and anthropologist with no degrees as such, she apparently has trouble with reading comprehension.

Today in a comment on Scott Wolters blog, Muir said "I noticed that Colavito claims he contacted me and asked for copies of the Latin text. Colavito has NEVER contacted me, even though my email is clearly at the top of my blog. He seems to have a very vivid imagination." I suppose she could really claim that since she made the initial contact and Jason only responded.

Diana Muir November 3, 2018 at 10:26 AM
"I noticed that Colavito claims he contacted me and asked for copies of the Latin text. Colavito has NEVER contacted me, even though my email is clearly at the top of my blog. He seems to have a very vivid imagination.

Someone also asked me a few days ago about the providence of the journals. "How could Scottish journals end up in Tennessee?" The answer is actually very simple. They were passed from father to son for 4 generations and then Katherine Sinclair (who married Earl David Wemyss of Wemyss) transferred them to her husbands care rather than trust her father (William and the Waster and her brother) to care for them. They then came down through many generations of Wemyss to John Wemyss, a member of the British military, who settled near Philadelphia, PA when the US was still a British colony. His son, John Jr, moved to Greene Co., TN where he died in 1812. John Weems Jr was my 3rd ggrandfather. I hope that helps." Ha! Again with the "providence".

Of course Wolter responds with support and his usual dissing of anything Jason. And puts in a plug for the object that propelled into the big time of the fringe elite, the KRS.

Scott Wolter November 3, 2018 at 10:46 AM
"Diana,
That the debunker made a false claim is not surprising, but I wouldn't worry about it at all. His constant name-calling and over-the-top negativity about anything and everything I am involved in doesn't deserve attention and certainly doesn't merit a response. Don't give him any oxygen; simply ignore him and his negative and irrelevant rants will eventually go away.

This is one of many questions that will become self-evident when the other journals are eventually published. It'll be interesting to see what resonates with people who read the first book. Wonder if they will catch the entries dealing the KRS party?"

Reply

Crash55

11/3/2018 04:05:45 pm

Providence needs to be more than just saying they were passed down through many generations. Need proof they existed at the time they are claimed to be written and then chain of custody. The fact that she claims they were copied over during the Civil War makes any claims about them being older than that suspect with out proof.

For real documents scholars look at the paper, ink, letter styles, grammar, etc. Just look at everything that was done to show that the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” as a fraud

Reply

Bob Weaver

11/3/2018 04:22:57 pm

I’m sure this all a big misunderstanding. There must have been a well documented discovery process with credible cross referenced validation through other scholars tracing and confirming provenience and provenance. The applied methodology and analysis results must have then followed that validate the claim about the age and material context of the documents. In turn, there must have been a team of professional linguists from accredited institutions working collaboratively to author a review publication in a reputable journal after peer review. Lastly, the securing of the documents with proper archival treatment surely took place with a legitimate museum or university or government agency. Let’s clear the air here; where can I find all this? Oh wait...I see she’s a lone wolf beyond reproach Mormon genealogist who emailed Scott Wolter.....ahhhh now it makes sense.

Reply

Crash55

11/3/2018 04:28:03 pm

Yes the rules of normal scholarship do not apply to her. Though I don’t see “Mormon genealogist” being an exactly a tough title to achieve. Just slightly harder than having Walter reply to an email where you confirm his ludicrous ideas

Were these documents real there would be academics lining up to study and publish on them.

Reply

Ken

11/3/2018 04:44:32 pm

As historical "researchers" get lazier and lazier, history will become shorter and shorter. By 2100, I predict all recorded history will be less than 50 years old.

Reply

Crash55

11/3/2018 05:14:16 pm

The problem is anyone can call themselves a "historical researcher." These days all you need is an email and maybe a blog.

It doesn't matter who the researcher is but rather the quality of the research.

Crash55

11/3/2018 06:30:52 pm

True. However the low barrier to entry means that we are seeing more and more people without the proper training to conduct good research. As you have pointed out before most of these people can't read the original languages and are not relying on primary sources. What is worse is that they often make statements that imply that they are using properly vetted sources

Eirik Sinclair

11/4/2018 11:58:00 am

You show a skeptic five dominoes that are standing in a line. It is clear that the one labeled 1 will hit 2, 2 will hit 3, and so on.

Then a dark screen is placed in front of the skeptic while he hears the dominoes fall. The screen is removed, and the skeptic states that the dominoes were never standing for there is no independent validation corroborating they were ever standing at all.

Scientists then state a rock formation that is underwater is evidence of a sunken city. For there is knowledge of archival records referring to a flood, the rocks are clearly underwater, and archaeological evidence indicates they are man made.

The pier which had fallen is not a city at all, but the skeptic adheres to the advice of experts. Even though a pile of Greek columns lay hidden at the bottom of the bay, for no one wishes to dig up what was hidden from view.

Out of sight, out of mind. Stonehenge still stands. It is a pier for alien spacecraft to land. Or, just a place to have a large signal fire.

Baffled

11/3/2018 06:05:53 pm

when material is not vetted, it can only be stated as a supposition. What hurts all of this, is that books coming out by Wolter, Muir and others now using this shabby type of research hurt the other people who are truly doing good work with presentable facts. That said, it could easily be listed under Fiction.

Reply

Dave Brody

11/3/2018 06:33:36 pm

Jason, you are just as guilty of bending the facts and obfuscating the truth as are those you criticize. You write that Nicolo Zeno was "in Venice in 1394, where he was on trial," and therefore could not have been sailing in the North Atlantic. But you know full well, having read "Irresistible North" by Andrea di Robilant, that Zeno was tried in absentia in Venice. You can be a real pedant when it comes to facts that support your argument, but somehow those same facts become irrelevant when they don't help you.

That book came out seven years ago, Dave, and even my prodigious memory can't recall every fact in the hundreds of books I've read since then. The author says in passing that he was tried in absentia, but he provides no reference for this. Few other sources say he was not present, which accounts for why I have no memory of what is literally two words in "Irresistible North." It isn't terribly important, though, since the same author said that he went into exile on Murano and wrote his will in 1400. There is still no match to the Zeno narrative.

Reply

HAL

11/3/2018 07:48:38 pm

Well you just proved his point. Facts don’t matter when they don’t help you. Go back to moms basement hypocrite.

A "fact," Hal, may be true or false. I am concerned for truth. The author provided no primary source, and since other authors disagree, I can't render a judgment on the truth of the assertion without a primary source.

Dave Brody

11/3/2018 10:21:43 pm

That's exactly my point, Jason. You are often wrong with your facts. Perhaps you should stop throwing so much shit against the wall hoping it will stick.

I think you meant to direct that comment at Scott Wolter, Dave. But to your point: The author didn't provide any evidence to distinguish whether he had records to prove the trial was in absentia or whether he concluded that because he believed Zeno to be in Greenland. Without evidence, I can't do better than to follow the general consensus among sources, some of which are more recent. I'm happy to correct the facts if you have a primary source that can confirm the claim.

Dave Brody

11/4/2018 09:36:51 am

I call bullshit, Jason. It's not about just two words or even about your "prodigious memory." The reality is that di Robilant’s entire book calls into question your assertion that the Zeno narrative is a fake. You didn’t “forget” it, you just chose not to disclose it. Like those on the political right you claim to abhor, you bend evidence and alter and misrepresent facts to fit your worldview. You are not an impartial observer, you are a zealot. Look carefully in the mirror. You will see those you abhor staring back at you.

The book, David, is not as convincing as you imagine, but its absolute authenticity is not entirely relevant to the subject under discussion here, which is the Sinclair journals. Even if you assume that the Zeno Narrative is based on fact, you run into the wall that the younger Zeno admitted to reconstructing much of it from memory after destroying the originals. At best it is a memory, with all the errors of memory. To that end, it is difficult to ascribe to it more than a description of a trip to Greenland, which is of no particular interest for our purposes. A journal that confirms the details that are speculative even by their author's admission, has a high burden of proof to overcome.

I checked the sources, and while "Irresistible North" provides none, those who cite primary sources offer a different interpretation. Andrea da Mosto's 1933 work on the Zeni, "I navigatori Nicolò e Antonio Zeno," one of the only works citing original sources, says (in italiano) that Zeno was in Venice in 1392, on trial for embezzlement in 1394, and writing his will on August 1, 1400. Da Mosto argued that we "may well identify [him] with that Nicolò Zeno who appears to have been a ducal counselor in the first half of 1393" (my trans.). This considerably narrows the time available for him to have engaged in the fantastic voyage that supposedly resulted in his 1394 death in the story. Regardless of whether he was physically present in the courtroom, there does not appear to be enough space in the records for him to have sprinted off to Greenland and back. I believe this represents more effort spent than any of your friends have offered to actually check the facts.

"The problem at the heart of this book is evidential unreliability — not an insignificant snag in a work of history. Zen the Younger had only five letters and a chart to go on for his account, and even they were badly damaged. Did he extrapolate beyond the point of all credibility? His book has stoked controversy for several centuries, but when a 19th-century Danish geographer branded Zen the Younger an out-and-out liar, his reputation tumbled into long decline. Di Robilant strives to salvage his man. He acknowledges that Zen’s narrative “was filled with mistakes and incongruities” and that its author “was certainly not shy about embellishing, adjusting, rewriting and even plagiarizing other texts in order to make the fisherman’s tale more credible.” But di Robilant’s cumulative arguments imply that despite it all, the Zen narrative might be true. This reviewer remains ­unconvinced."

Reply

Doc Rock

11/3/2018 07:36:33 pm

Nothing in terms of "providenced" and authenticated artifacts produced thus far to support the assertion that Templars, or anyone else besides the drop in by the L'Anse aux Meadow folks, were traipsing throughout North America during the Middle Ages. Yet they think that sites identified in the journal will produce data proving the authenticity of the journal and associated claims. Stay tuned for the upcoming breaking news about the discovery of an in situ broadsword, chainmail, and horse bones on the outskirts of Podunk USA

I'm amazed at how these folks manage to keep a straight face while discussing this stuff on TV and at public appearances. I'm amazed that there are people who will shell out 45 bucks for this nonsense.

Yet they walk among us......

Reply

E.P. Grondine

11/4/2018 09:29:17 am

@Doc -

What is very interesting to me is that the general public is far more interested in the very occasional European visitor than in millennia of Native history.

And any slight evidence of contact is blow up into imaginary empires.

My gripe is that the archaeological community ignores Native American oral histories, when those histories can be checked against the excavation record. You will often find people excavating through strata, who have absolutely no idea of the later peoples lives.

Even rough national identifications are often lacking for many sites.

Reply

Eirik Sinclair

11/4/2018 09:53:06 am

You aren't taking into account evolution. Much of the Oriental written records come from places not in the Orient. Time is skewed given the records talk of history in other places.

What was cannot be seen again. What is is what was left from what was. Oral histories are records that come from those who are not in the oral history. For it was told to those who replaced them.

Those who were native to the land visited other lands. For the sea is visited by those who were native to oral histories.

Doc Rock

11/4/2018 03:17:46 pm

EP,

I would suggest taking a look at the work of Robert Salzer.

E.P. Grondine

11/5/2018 01:19:15 pm

@Doc -

Already covered in "Man and Impact in the Americas". (Get your copy today.)

The "gaints" of the Ho Chunk were Andastes (now known to be X mt DNA).

Doc Rock

11/5/2018 01:31:14 pm

Then you might see a problem with asserting that the "archaeological community" (which ranges from Ivy League white folks to Native Americans working for the federal, state, or tribal agencies) ignores Native American oral traditions.

Jim

11/5/2018 07:20:16 pm

"The Gaints of the Ho Chunk" has best seller written all over it !

E.P. Grondine

11/5/2018 07:27:08 pm

@Doc -

You don't quite understand yet...

When I did my book on this, there were about 10-14 people seriously working with Native American oral histories.

Nowadays, your better archeologists have a fair mastery, but they are a small percent in comparison with the number of not so good archaeologists Good excavation technique does not a good anthropologist make, and educational requirements reflect old techniques.

The process of change is very very slow, and I'm tired.

It gets worse. Not only did a comet impact event occur which killed off the mammoth and mastodon, many peoples remembered the events and where they were when they occurred.

Now you may have a problem with NAGPRA, but I do not, as digging and curating are not my fields. Not my problem.

"Man and Impact in the Americas" was supposed to be a test drive for "Man and Impact in the Ancient Near East" and "Man and Impact in Europe", but those are beyond me now. All in all, I have some old writings to sell in Hollywood, and Etruria and Crete beckon. So move everything to print on demand, and I am done.

Doc Rock

11/5/2018 09:24:11 pm

So we are moving a bit away from the narrative that the archaeological community ignores Native American oral traditions then?

AmericanCool"Disco"Dan

11/3/2018 09:31:25 pm

Wolter posts to himself posing as someone else?

"Scott WolterNovember 3, 2018 at 5:38 PM
Scott, the last two years have been the most exciting ever. This is off the charts and will certainly be a great part of our history. It would be next to impossible to create a hoax this elaborate. I appreciate your diligence in following through on all this this information, There is a lot to get your head around but you have done a great job and more! Janet deserves a lot of credit for her contribution. She rocks!!
There is nothing that will change the debunkers minds as they still have to come forward with even a bit of evidence to prove the KRS a hoax. All we see is speculation and nonsense. Let them sit and stew on this one. Keep it up pal, I am enjoying the ride! -- Darwin Ohman"

I didn't miss it. Wolter sometimes posts from his own account messages he receives from his friends who don't / won't / can't post themselves. It wasn't really a big deal since it was signed. Think of it like sharing a quote.

Mike Morgan

11/3/2018 10:24:09 pm

"Wolter posts to himself posing as someone else?"

Doubtful. Darwin Ohman is a real person, a downstream relative of Olof, the "discoverer" of the KRS. He has commented on Wolter's blog in the past as well as in "The Kensington Rune Stone International Supporters Club" Facebook group. The comment "sounds" like him.

Picture of wolter and him together @ http://scottwolteranswers.blogspot.com/2018/01/kensington-rune-stone-visitors-center.html

Reply

AMERICAN COOL "DISCO" DAN

11/3/2018 10:32:50 pm

I know he's a real person. Look at the page and tell my why he's posting under Wolter's name.

Jim

11/3/2018 10:34:51 pm

What he is getting at, is that Darwin Ohmans post has Wolters name and photo at the beginning of the post, signifying it was posted by Wolter his own self.

Mike Morgan

11/3/2018 11:12:05 pm

Oops! Well then, never mind. I stand corrected. I'll be playing my age card now. :>)

Eirik Sinclair

11/4/2018 09:40:27 am

Zeno the philosophers -

If Achilles is a fast runner, and the tortoise is a slow runner, Achilles will never catch the tortoise if it has a head start because of the laws of infinity.

If a fast thinker thinks of all the possibilities, he will spend endlessly more time thinking. While the tortoise is a slow thinker, therefore the tortoise moves on quicker and will never be caught by Achilles, the fast thinker, who is too busy thinking.

Those who have ships provide a motion which does not exist, for they did not stop and think. Thinkers who wish to catch the tortoise can only do so by waiting for their return. Thus, the thinker never runs after the tortoise, because if the thinker does the thinker falls infinitely behind.

A hare thinks ahead and never runs, this so the tortoise will catch up to hare, making the hare the faster runner.

Reply

Charles Verrastro

11/4/2018 11:45:40 am

I seem to be the one to be pedantic about inconsequential or niggling points. But there was an English Civil War (1642–1651), which would fit the supposed original's historic source, although why the copy could be dated to either event era without forensic or paleographic evidence (or a simple Colophon) escapes me. Why not 1900's (or 2000's?). Not an argument however for the authenticity of what is clearly a modern Oera Linda Book (or name your favorite forgery).
I do like to keep an open mind on many suspected forgeries. James Macpherson was clearly forging his works based on skimpy oral Ossianic lore - And I always admired the cheek of 're-translating' his "English Translation" back into Old Gaelic.
Yet I always had a stubborn liking for a supposed imitator, Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué's Barzaz Breiz. I feel partly vindicated that his original field notebooks show he was largely faithful to his oral informants traditional folk versions.
But I am not holding my breath that the supposed buried documents will be dug up any time soon. Or why they are left moldering away when the supposed owner regrets abandoning them even though she knows exactly where they are.

Reply

Doc Rock

11/4/2018 12:01:57 pm

Someone familiar with the Barzaz Breiz.

I want to party with you.

Reply

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/4/2018 12:15:06 pm

I wonder if Ms. Muir buries all her trash or just the hoax stuff. As has been said it makes the story tailor made for our Scott. She decided on her own that they were a hoax then she decided on her own that they were not a hoax. She's really got Wolter fooled.

Reply

An Anonymous Nerd

11/4/2018 12:42:54 pm

I posted with a list of assumptions someone would have to make to believe in any of this, and pointing out that all of them would require proof by themselves, let alone all together.

We'll see if he approves it -- I doubt it. Hopefully no death threats will follow. There seem to be a lot of those going around these days.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply

Jim

11/4/2018 01:28:18 pm

Did you post under An Anonymous Nerd ? Wolter will want to see ID.

Reply

An Anonymous Nerd

11/4/2018 03:58:33 pm

What if I told him I was heir to the Templars?

-An Anonymous Nerd

Jim

11/4/2018 04:55:14 pm

Wait,,, Diana Muir did your family history as well ?,,,Lol.

An Anonymous Nerd

11/4/2018 11:04:20 pm

He let it through and he responded -- can't really say his response was substantive or satisfying but....Well, he's on television, and I am not, and he strikes me as the sort that would be full of himself even if he weren't a celebrity. So I consider it remarkable that I got into the comments at all.

My idea wasn't to convert any of his faithful but, rather, to raise some of the obvious questions in the hopes that perhaps folks who read the article some day might think of things they otherwise wouldn't, and not get tricked by the seeming lack of a contrary voice.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Jim

11/5/2018 11:24:06 am

Often Wolter can be relied to say something blindingly stupid or bizarre, like his claim that Jesus Christ was a Templar.
Often though, one has to get him worked up a bit first.

Doc Rock

11/5/2018 12:16:45 pm

Your comments to Wolter and his response is a good illustration of the concept of fractal wrongness. The guy is screwed in the head at every level on this issue but acts like anyone who challenges him on it is an idiot.

But then again, the last time that I visited his site he seemed to be blissfully unaware that he was getting his ass kicked in a debate with a teenage girl.

But as long as the ten percent of the ten percent is out there, guys like him will do okay.

Reply

E.P. Grondine

11/5/2018 01:26:30 pm

@Doc

"But as long as the ten percent of the ten percent is out there, guys like him will do okay."

As long as most moder sceptics (including Jason) keep pretending that Richard Kieninger is at the heart of the modern Theosophist cult archaeology industry, this nonsense will continue.

And as long as Native Histories are ignored, they will be replaced by made up nonsense of one type or another.

Doc Rock

11/5/2018 01:44:17 pm

I honestly believe that you honestly believe that. Let's leave it at that.

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/5/2018 05:26:07 pm

"As long as most moder sceptics (including Jason) keep pretending that Richard Kieninger is at the heart of the modern Theosophist cult archaeology industry, this nonsense will continue."

many of the comments on this item produced in me a desire to howl 'provenance' over and over while banging my head on the wall.
And, these days self-publishing is acceptable. My own books come out from a number of genuine professional publishers in half a dozen countries, however I published one that could be described as self-published, quite simply because it was on a topic I felt important, but which was a narrow one. It had limited interest and while a couple of New Zealand publishers agreed the book was well-written and my passion was obvious, they also said with practicality that it wouldn't sell in sufficient numbers to make them money. It was in the end self-published and after 6 years is still selling the occasional copy and was last month the subject of a National magazine's article. But yes, it's self-published. So I wouldn't fault Jason that some of his books have fitted into this category.
I started reading this column a while back because I find it interesting. The only thing that baffles me a bit is why anyone in their right mind would ever have taken Von D. and his ilk seriously. I read the books, when they appeared, for the entertainment. It never occurred to me they were true, and that applies to most of the topic.I also now and again watch TV items of the sort, and ditto. They entertain and amuse me. That's all I require of them. After all, one of the genres in which I write mysef, and have had published books, is SF, and it's FICTION.

Reply

Frank

11/4/2018 09:10:36 pm

In the world of story telling, there are two types of people. One type are those that invent stories, and the second type are those that discuss those inventions.

As far as when was the first time that any European or African, using the sea, got to the Americas, Columbus has been credited by history, backed by facts and corroborative evidence, that he and his Spanish crew were the first. The rest of those claims about the Vikings, and Templar knights having preceded Columbus are all stories. Stories backed by conspiracy theories and the hoaxes that generated them.

It's fine and dandy to have fun with these speculations, but seriously, how come those valiant and adventurous Viking men never brought back a nice souvenir to their sweethearts from those new lands they visited? I mean, they brought back no corn, no tomatoes, no potatoes, no turkeys, nor even turkey feathers to stick on their "hats", nor anything new to the old world from the new one. Columbus did! Now, I can see why the Templar knights did not, as they went there, supposedly, in secret, to bury their treasures, therefore we assume they returned as they went, in secret. Why would those brave and faithful knights go to the trouble of sailing/travel to a whole new world that was not even known to exist, just to bury a treasure? Why was there no secret ground to dig up in the secure and known old world?

And how about the American Indians, do they provide us with anything that the "white" Europeans brought to the new world? Like measles, for instance, or some other old, white race, germs to the red race? Columbus did! And what about horses, surely a "knight" without a horse is no knight at all, Templar or otherwise. Columbus and the Spaniards did, although not on the first trips, etc., etc.

The truth of the matter is that, with Columbus the historical facts are there. With the rest, it's all in fun and jest, and some make some money at it, too.

Reply

Jim

11/4/2018 09:24:33 pm

Wow, you don't believe the Vikings came to America, despite all the evidence ?

Reply

Eirik Sinclair

11/5/2018 03:02:33 am

FRANK,

Columbus never made it to America. Geez, it was all just a hoax. The evidence was faked. Remember the part about him finding 'people' on an island in the Caribbean? 'PEOPLE' FRANK. And, the part about finding 'Pyramids' later that took hundreds of years to construct. Geez, Frank. It was all just a mirage. And, the minority Indians they wrote about who had white skin that the other Indians revered. And, the documented ships they stole to design Columbus' ships from a sea faring people. That was the Starship Enterprise FRANK. Columbus just beamed himself across the Atlantic. The whole story of Columbus sailing here was just a rue to conceal the science of space travel discovered when the aliens crashed on earth. Geez, FRANK, you are so gullible.

Reply

EAGLE FEATHER

11/5/2018 03:15:39 am

Indians didn't wear feathers until later in their history. It was the Mediterranean people who put feathers in their cap. Columbus didn't have any feathers, and he and his friends were embarrassed by it, so he intentionally brought disease to America to wipe out the Americans. It was a plot to get the last remaining people on planet earth to stare at a brick wall and sing to it. Oh, those stone brick alien Kronans. They fell out of the Starship Enterprise and now we have to stack them into walls to so as to imitate their native habitats. Oops... I just remembered I'm late for work. Got to go!

Reply

Cosmic Conscious

11/5/2018 09:13:33 am

People. In a place 'where no one had gone before'. How can that be? The ice bridge! That's it, the ice bridge brought them here. Wait... there isn't any ice in the Caribbean. Ooh, I know, I know. They were abducted by Jean Luc Picardo, and brought over just before the alien spacecraft crash landed in Europe. Yeah, yeah, that's it. The wreckage was found in Rozwell, Old Italy.

Reply

Jim

11/5/2018 11:48:43 am

One has to wonder, who is responsible for these fake documents. Both sets of supposedly collaborating documents seem to be targeting gullible old ladies who already were drinking the kool aid. (Halpern and Muir) What are the connections here? Pulitzer ?
Or am I just becoming a conspiracy theorist ?

Reply

FAKE INJUN

11/5/2018 01:35:22 pm

Have to throw this one out there...

People in this blog typically are skeptical of everything, thus the term skeptic. Therefore, if I asked if a T-Rex ever existed, skeptics would say no there is no documentation. If an archeologist says he has fossils, then the answer is yes the T-Rex did exist. Yet, no skeptic ever says, it was a large alligator that was caught in a mud slide that gave it its signature shape. My personal belief is that the people on this blog are very well informed and know the truth. Skeptics are simply in charge of getting rid of the old and establishing the new.

Thus, we have evidence. Through my studies, it is easy to point out the time loop which shows up over and over throughout history. Such as the golden fleece... something to send the old out to get, so that they would get killed. Therefore, we have the Holy Grail in medieval times. That which the Knights whose bellies grew with their power were sent out to find, which most ended up getting killed by a larger force (ex. indians) rather than succeed with their technological superiority. A few Knights would be successful and would then be reborn, a.k.a. resurrected. The Holy Girl. In modern times, we have men chasing after other things of interest. Whereas, the Oracles, Mary Magdelene, Lady Liberty, etc. sent their men on their quests to die. And a new breed would replace the old, with a new breed which was skinnier, had more hair, more to the liking of women. History erased, no one wants to advertise that they killed their own family.

Reply

Waste of time

11/5/2018 01:37:46 pm

This is all a waste of time because the Rosslyn mob has been quiet for years now.

Reply

FAKE INJUN

11/5/2018 01:44:47 pm

Which mob do you represent?

Reply

Kal

11/5/2018 04:07:05 pm

What does Muir doing a genealogy search have to do with anything now? We know Ancestry and other similar sites are run by the Mormons in Utah. So?

Also, what does Wolter home to gain from translated and conveniently absent ancient texts?

Neither can claim any treasure from it, so is it fame? Fame is fleeting.

Is Muir riding on the google search popularity of her published works, (some of which are interesting looking, but too pricey) and that of another Muir who is also published? Really, 40 bucks for a book online? Better have cool illustrations.

Anyway, the self publish argument is silly. She is also self published. She does not live in a 'basement' at all. Or more a point on it, how do you all know where Jason lives? Are you spying on him? That's a little creepy.

They use aliases of Twitter. So. I am using one now. They all do.

The Templars are today's fringe curiosity, but their group was actually killed off when the French King had them done away with so he wouldn't have to pay them. The treasure funded then France. It's gone. Used up.

What does this Wolter story even prove? He is a self proclaimed historical archeologist, but nothing more than a different type of snake oil salesman, where his brand of snake oil is just forged fame creating documents, which have disappeared conveniently.

I would expect to see it on AA within a season or so. It is what they like best - something that can’t be proven because it is no longer within our reach

Reply

Bezalel

11/5/2018 06:29:34 pm

Pretty sure they already did, if briefly this summer.
Not sure which episode.

Reply

Jim

11/5/2018 07:11:21 pm

Sounds like the work of time traveling Templars from the future.

Reply

Charles Verrastro

11/5/2018 09:36:28 pm

Jim
11/5/2018 11:24:06 am

Often Wolter can be relied to say something blindingly stupid or bizarre, like his claim that Jesus Christ was a Templar.
Often though, one has to get him worked up a bit first.

Actually, Jim, a Mason did claim Jesus and his twelve apostles formed a regular lodge back in the 1700's. Nothing new under the sun.

Reply

Jim

11/5/2018 11:26:44 pm

Lol, not surprising that something even as asinine as that isn't an original idea from Wolter.
Most of the crap history he has pushed has been directly regurgitated from the nonsense put forth by William Mann

A guy named Jesus? Or a time traveler Jesus from 2,000 years ago went to Templar times and did this? The Mormons like their later day notions, so maybe he's that time traveler Jesus, and there are buried treasure tablets somewhere under a run stone covered rock in France bearing the name, Jesus, time traveler and templar.

Omouamoua is probably a spear of space junk the Vegans hurled at us for coopting their name to describe people who only eat Earth vegetables. (It came from the vicinity of Lyra of which Vega is a star, but Vega is likely too young and too hot for intelligent life to evolve there, being blue white and all. For an Earth like planet to be comfortable, it would be over 6 AU from the star. But a probe from the G type star a bit behind that, maybe.

Reply

An Anonymous Nerd

11/6/2018 07:30:55 am

Almost always, to be honest I'm not sure I should include the "almost" anymore, the "mainstream" explanations are simply better. They have more actual evidence, as opposed to speculation. They have more analyses grounded in understanding of what you're looking at, as opposed to "looks like, therefore is." They require fewer assumptions, and of course each assumption is also a separate premise that requires proof that is lacking.

This goes for Wolter, the Ancient Aliens crowd, the Atlantis people, and the fringe folks who post here to undermine Mr. Colavito.

Now that I think about it the "almost" in the first paragraph is there because sometimes the mainstream view changes -- to another mainstream view. For example it was good scientists and researchers, not Fringe types like Wolter, who translated the Maya written language, and changed our view of their history. And it's good scientists, not Fringe types like Hancock, who are developing a more-specific understanding of the nitty-gritty details of, say, the construction of the Great Pyramid.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply

Frank

11/6/2018 09:05:50 am

Hey Nerd! says the intelligent thinker, you cannot, "universally", group everyone. Although I do not claim to be one of them, intelligent wise, but taking the liberty to speak for the "intelligent" Atlantis "people", "hypothetically" speaking, we are to consider as a different "animal" those very-scientific Atlantis researchers, and "their" hypotheses based on Historical-Critical methods. Which we are assured, by the sources themselves, that this very historical-critical method is as good a science as any of the mainstream scientific methods for any discipline. And that also goes for the translation of the Atlantean language, which seems to be really closely related to Italian-American English, if we use the Templars own Rosetta stone; Kensington Rune Stone, decoded: Vikings, Templars, and Goths in America in 1362 before the Italian Columbus of 1492, who was a descendant of the Atlantean King Italos, so says Historical-Critical science.

Today, at the end of it, we should know just how much to laugh or cry for us Americans, no matter who got here first. The votes will be counted, and we shall know if Atlantis will be one step closer to Zeus' full wrath, or if we have a chance at a retroactive pardon, by renouncing America's first dictator-to-be by a "show-of-hands." If the majority of us Americans care more for wealth and money, than we do for what is just and fair, our eventual demise will be imminent, as almighty Zeus will not trow his thunderbolt at Phaethon, to stop him from burning up the whole earth with his father's "nuclear" chariot.

Reply

COSMIC CONSCIOUS

11/6/2018 09:24:14 am

Mainstream views are 'mostly' appropriate. But in regards to history they 'almost' always take a tangent away from the truth.

Right now, every citizen in the USA has a history whether it be city, state, country... or ethnic designation. History books cover the upper 1% or the lower 60%. If a history is backed by the writings of the 1%, then the other 99% is left out of history, which would make it a forged history. If a history is backed by the oral history of workers who are the 60%, then the leaders who guide the purpose of the civilization are left on the cutting room floor.

The only people who are never viewed in history are the 39%, the half breeds, the below the white collar & the above the blue collar citizens. Carrying a level of intelligence, but not to the level of master over others, that which keeps them stationed at their designated duties.

Historians record death from above, and death from below. But rarely do they ever speak of death to those carrying too much in the middle. The descending class, or the rising class. It is the reason the Rise and Fall of Civilizations are never explained.

Reply

COSMIC CONSCIENCE

11/6/2018 09:44:10 am

When the nuclear chariot of the 39% reaches the upper class, then a new civilization is constructed.

When the nuclear chariot of the 39% reaches the lower class, then the old civilization falls into ruin.

There is no such thing as race, there are just people who categorize themselves as a race. Romans defeated Greece, they were the descendants of the upper class Egypt created.

You can flip or you can flop. Every race comes from another race.

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/6/2018 11:51:36 am

"There is no such thing as race, there are just people who categorize themselves as a race."

Similarly there is no such thing as dog breeds.

COSMIC CONSCIOUS

11/6/2018 12:34:43 pm

Exactly, but in reverse.

Instead of dogs categorizing themselves as a breed.

A race of people categorized them as a breed.

Without the decision to categorize, the breed would not exist.

Thus, the Templar Order

Joe Scales

11/6/2018 03:28:56 pm

Apparently, if politics is your bag, Mexican is a race...

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/6/2018 03:45:54 pm

You keep saying "There is no race" but then you keep talking about race. Go Occupy something.

"Every race comes from another race."
"A race of people categorized them as a breed."

Julie

11/6/2018 10:00:24 pm

The ads for this Muir book went out on Facebook on Oct 29 or so.
The new season of Curse of Oak Island starts airing on Nov 13.

Coincidence?

uh huh

Reply

Joe Scales

11/7/2018 10:18:44 am

I do wonder if Wolter regrets not jumping aboard the Oak Island hoax. But who knows... perhaps he tried and wasn't offered a feature. The irony is that it is Geology that dispels much of the treasure lore, and if Wolter ever actually wanted to do real geology, he could put the continuing lies in regard to flood tunnels to rest.

Reply

American Cool "Disco" Dan

11/7/2018 05:25:57 pm

My personal opinion is that he'd be all over anything that gives him camera time and run his stupid facemouth.

"Did anyone ever consider [Oak Island] was a decoy site? If so, it has and continues to work to perfection."

Sure Scott, let's go off to the middle of nowhere and put a LOT of work into building a decoy site that won't be found for hundreds of years. Wolter's like Fredo from The Godfather: "I"M smaht!!"